Jim Dunn and Henry Valasco in the Drag Racing Magazine
sponsored Top Fuel car (Jim Gardner Photo)

In 1961 The Nationals moved from Detroit Dragway to the brand new facilities at Indianapolis Raceway Park. By 1964, my first year at Indy, the Nats had found a permanent residence. IRP provided the stage for drag racing’s own version of a Greek play. . . the making of legends, exhilarating triumphs, and a few terrible tragedies.

In ‘64 my first impression IRP was how far it was away from Indianapolis! Actually, IRP was located not in Indy, but outside the small Midwestern hamlet of Clermont. IRP was “so far out in the boonies” that the front gate on Highway 136, Crawfordsville Road, backed up for several miles each day with traffic trying to squeeze into IRP. This led to enterprising safari trips to discover those few “back roads” into the track and its massive grounds. Today the surrounding acreage holds subdivisions, “suburban farms” and the evidence that civilization is quickly enveloping what in 1964 was wide, uninterrupted expanses of Indiana cornfields. 

One of our secret “back roads” was an early turn onto Girls School Road, and then a narrow paved road that took you to the back gate. It was along this road that I “discovered” my first “real” apple tree. As a Miami kid, I knew what mango, avocado and coconut trees were, but for me apples came not from trees, but the supermarket.

Another “must see” were the campgrounds hosted by the Clermont Lions Club.In those days Indy had few motels on its west side, and rooms were all but impossible to find. The Lions opened their club grounds to those who wanted to “camp out,” and just as many racers spent their Nationals week sleeping in tents or the back of cars and pick-ups. The campers ate the Lions pancake breakfasts and washed away the grime at the community

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showers. It all seems so far removed now, but in 1964 everyone enjoyed the camaraderie that The Nationals always seemed to produce. 

Another attraction was the endless varieties of race cars being wrenched beneath the Lions campground’s huge oak and elm trees. This was a lot of what ‘60s drag racing was about.. . racers helping racers.

Although I managed to scrounge my way to Indy to attend my first Nationals, I did so with “Not Sufficient Funds” in my jeans. I was down to my last few dollars, wondering how I would make it home when an old pal came to my rescue. In 1964 NHRA also presented a hot rod and custom car show, at the Murat Shrine building in downtown Indy. He must have sensed my financial situtation, because Ernie Schorb, a friend and the promoter and manager of drag racing in the Miami area, asked if I’d like to earn a few extra bucks manning the NHRA souvenirs booth at the car show.

That Friday night I eagerly began my tour as a “temporary NHRA employee,” selling 12th Anniversary t-shirts and other items. A second “sales associate” accompanied me, a fellow Cabriolets car club member named Jimmy Marrone. It turned out that we were actually working for Chick Saffel, NHRA’s first “souvenir king”. Chick eventually created an empire that became known as Sport Services. Right after the ‘64 Nationals Jimmy Marrone went to work for Don Garlits at Garlits’ old Nebraska Avenue shop in Tampa. He began as a parts washer and helper and ultimately became a Garlits crewman for several years. It’s Jimmy who appears in the famous Garlits “Six-Second Beard Shave” photo shot immediately after Garlits completed his “come-back” win at the 1967 Nationals. Our duties ended when the show closed Sunday night, but Chick Saffel and I have remained friends to this day.